Lifeboat Foundation

A research and development lab of the Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies in the southern city of Dongguan caught fire, producing large clouds of thick grey smoke. Locals caught the incident on camera.

The videos show plumes of smoke coming from the building’s top floors, and largely obscuring the sky above the facility. According to the local fire department, the flammable sound-absorbing cotton which the facility was using may be the main source of the blaze.

🚨 #BREAKING – A #Huawei research laboratory burns in 🔥 #Dongguanpic.twitter.com/BGqR7Hmz0J — ISCResearch (@ISCResearch) September 25, 2020

From the beginning, SpaceX has had a goal of bringing high speed internet service to underserved locations, creating competition in areas that currently have limited options or, in many cases, monopolies causing higher prices.

With its constellation of low orbit satellites, Starlink will be able to shake up the broadband industry by offering a new category of broadband. Without the need to place expensive infrastructure like underground or pole-based wiring required for current broadband options, SpaceX could more easily reach rural areas and begin to close the digital divide.

A study from Broadband Now shows that, in addition to working toward closing that gap, introducing a new internet provider could reduce the price of internet service by up to 40%. The chart below shows how adding additional providers in an area significantly reduces the average monthly cost of internet service.

The low-orbit satellite service should be a huge step up for rural Americans. But experts say it won’t be the game changer many expect.

OneWeb is set to resume launches with Arianespace in December to build out its Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite internet constellation. The satellite operator announced Monday that Arianespace will provide 16 more launches, each placing another 34 to 36 satellites into OneWeb’s constellation.

This update comes as OneWeb is in the midst of a restructuring deal with the U.K. government, Bharti Global Limited, and Hughes Network Systems after filing for Chapter 11 in March. The U.K. government and Bharti Global Limited announced in July they formed a consortium to acquire OneWeb, each providing $500 million. Hughes joined the consortium in July with a $50 million investment. The deal is still subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close by the Fourth Quarter of 2020.

OneWeb has 74 satellites in orbit and its return-to-flight launch in December will increase the fleet to 110 satellites. The company plans to complete the deployment of its constellation by the end of 2022, and start commercial services by the end of 2021. The initial service regions above 50 degrees North latitude will include the United Kingdom, Alaska, Northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, the Arctic seas and Canada.

Starlink Terminal Digital Illustration Created By: Erc X @ErcXspace via Twitter.

SpaceX is actively assessing the Starlink broadband network’s performance, it begun a private beta service for users across multiple U.S. states. Company employees received early access to the user terminal and Wi-Fi router device to connect and receive data from the Starlink satellites in space. To date, there are around 708 internet-beaming Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit, out of the 4,409 satellites SpaceX plans to initially deploy.

The 19-inch user terminal dish will not require a professional to install at home, like other networks. The customer will be able to easily install the service – “Instructions are simply: plug-in socket, point at sky,” the founder of SpaceX Elon Musk said. Early this year, he shared that the Starlink terminal dish features the ability to search for the satellite constellation –“Starlink terminal has motors to self-adjust optimal angle to view sky,” Musk shared. The device’s technology is advanced enough to find the signal on its own, users will not have to figure out where the Starlink constellation might be nor adjust the terminal as the satellites move across the sky.

The first performance numbers from SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service are coming in and they’re looking great. End-user terminal production numbers, though, are another matter.

Hu is part of a rising class of creators in China who are racing to get in on live-stream shopping, an emerging form of retail that has grown into an industry worth an estimated $66 billion. Although the trend has been part of Chinese internet culture for years, analysts say the coronavirus pandemic has made it mainstream.

A rising class of creators in China are racing to get in on live-stream shopping, an emerging form of retail that has become an estimated $66 billion industry.

This week on September 16, the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) Board of Directors held a meeting to discuss their support for bringing SpaceX’s Starlink broadband internet service to Canada. “The Board adopted a resolution during a recent meeting in Hearst, held both electronically and in-person, supporting Starlink, a satellite internet service that’s being developed by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation’s (SpaceX),” FONOM representatives wrote in a press release. “The Resolution also calls on the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to permit and expand the company a Basic International Telecommunications Services (BITS) license.”

“We know today our citizens require greater connectivity than 50/10 megabits per second,” the President of FONOM Danny Whalen said in a statement. “FONOM believes that the Starlink program is our best option.”

SpaceX says its service is capable of providing low-latency broadband internet below 30 milliseconds, and download speeds greater than 100 megabits per second.

SpaceX is taking a new approach to internet access, and it’s deploying a special vehicle to try it out.